Who’s Your Daddy?
Where Father’s Day Came From
It’s June and, for many people, that means Summer is here and it’s time for trips to the beach, barbecues, picnics, wearing shorts and flip flops, getting sun burnt and holidays. For chocolatiers it means three months crossing your fingers that orders arrive with customers as they were dispatched, not as boxes of chocolate fondue. It also means that Father’s Day is coming!
Which got me wondering where Father’s Day actually came from.
The more I researched, the more versions of the story I found. Here’s a brief history.
Long before the modern Father’s Day, some Catholic countries associated fatherhood with the Feast of St Joseph on 19th March — a tradition that survives in several countries today. Like the UK, by far the most countries celebrate on the third Sunday in June and the ‘Father’s Day’ we recognise today originated in America.
Father Figure
In 1908 a Father’s Day service was held on 5th July in Fairmont, West Virginia. It was suggested by Grace Golden Clayton as a way of honouring the 361 men who were killed in the Monongah Mining Disaster in the previous December. About 250 of the men were fathers, leaving around 1,000 children fatherless. Clayton’s own father was among the men killed. Although this may have been the first Father’s Day event, it was not promoted outside of Fairmont so never gained traction.
The Mother of Father’s Day
In 1909 Sonora Louise Smart Dodd was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at the Methodist church in her home town of Spokane, Washington. She felt that fathers should have a special day, too.
Her inspiration was her own father, William Jackson Smart. A Civil War veteran, Smart was widowed in 1898, leaving him to raise six children. Sonora, who was 16, helped him to care for her five brothers.
Enlisting the help of several local church communities and the local YMCA, she petitioned the Spokane Ministerial Association to establish Father’s Day. Churches throughout Spokane celebrated the first Father’s Day on 19th June 1910. Baskets of roses were distributed to those attending the service — red for fathers still living, white for those deceased.
It took many years for Father’s Day to gain national recognition in America. Through Dodd’s campaigning, a bill was introduced to Congress in 1913 to grant Father’s Day national recognition but was defeated, as were later bills. In spite of support over the years from three Presidents, it wasn’t until 24th April 1972 that President Nixon signed Father’s Day into law as a permanent national observance.
Why the third Sunday in June? The story goes that Sonora Dodd originally wanted Father’s Day to be 5th June which was her father’s birthday. However, the pastors conducting the services needed more time to prepare their sermons so the celebration was deferred for a few weeks.
Are Fathers The Poor Relations?
Needless to say, Father’s Day has been commercialised in modern times. Gone are the simple red and white roses. Now we buy cards and gifts and take our dads out for Sunday lunch.
Although Father’s Day spending dropped sharply in 2020 as Covid restrictions changed the way people celebrated, spending in the UK was forecast to reach £695 million in 2024 — still less than half the amount spent on Mother’s Day. Looks like dads have been getting a raw deal!
Whoever ‘Dad’ is to you, there’s no doubt he deserves something nice on his special day. Will you be buying him boring socks, a tie or another ‘World’s No 1 Dad’ mug? My poor dad suffered plenty of that! (Although I must add that my taste in ties is excellent.) I did also buy him his favourite sweet treats — orange creams. Maybe your dad will love them, too!
Whatever you buy your favourite father figure this year, he’ll love it because it came from you.
By the way, any chiropractor will tell you that flip flops are bad for your feet!